The Way looks like Another World by way of Sword & Sworcery
Way to Kickstart an unofficial spiritual successor.
Three-person polish indie studio PlayWay has launched a Kickstarter for a promising-looking oldschool adventure called The Way.
Aesthetically, it's hard to deny the similarity between The Way and Eric Chahi's 1991 sci-fi adventure classic Another World - a game PlayWay goes out of its way to thank as a major inspiration. One could go so far as to call it a rip-off, but so few games have tried to replicate that title's art style that seeing it expanded upon with modern hardware comes as a welcome addition to the industry. Plus it's a lot more detailed than Delphine's 23-year old game and its lush, intentionally pixelated environments brings to mind other evocative contemporary titles like Sword & Sworcery and Hyper Light Drifter, which is in no way a bad thing.
"The Way is a 2D puzzle platformer game inspired by classic titles like Another World, Heart of Darkness and Flashback. Seeing the remakes and re-releases of those titles we realised that there are no new games that would have similar spirit and gameplay," the developer stated in its pitch. "It is a real shame, because those were some of our favorite titles back in the day and we still play them once in a while. Revisiting those games always makes us wish for something new that would deliver the similar experience and emotions."
The actual plot of The Way is like a cross between Shadow of the Colossus and Metroid where you assume the role of a grief-stricken astronaut exploring a forbidden world where it's said one can learn the secret to reviving the dead. This would be pretty handy for our hero who's recently lost his dearly departed romantic partner.
Much of The Way's gameplay will be puzzle-based with a multitude of multi-functioning tools and artifacts at your disposal. These include a reflective shield and cool powers like telekinesis and teleportation.
PlayWay has already sunk $20K of its own money into this project and it's nearly reached its goal of $15K CAD with a current tally of $12,547. That's not bad given that its Kickstarter campaign only launched on Monday.
It still has a lot of stretch goals to meet, however. The minimal funding goal will guarantee PC, Mac and Linux versions of the game, while $25K CAD will bring it to iOS, Android and Ouya. $100K will fund it coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles and PlayWay added that it's "still looking into the possibility of releasing the game for WiiU."
Early birds who back The Way for $10 CAD will receive a digital copy of it upon its estimated September release - although the price will increase to $15 CAD once this tier is full - and $25 CAD pledges will come with a digital copy of the soundtrack.
